Feet First
by HandsfirstintoHeck
Summary: New Mombasa was a strategic failure for the UNSC, with a majority of the city destroyed and it eventually getting glassed. Uniform Squad was one of the many ODST squads from the 7th Shock Troops Battalion to perish during the Battle of Earth and New Mombasa. The leader of Uniform Squad awakes in Remnant after a failed attempt at going out with a bang.
1. Out with a Boom

Writing sure is a doozy. I'm an amateur writer so feel free to give me criticism and correct me on anything that I get wrong or mix up. I'm also starting this from Volume 4 of RWBY, thanks!

* * *

Steve felt like he was thrown on top of an active plasma grenade. Attempting to stifle his scream of pain to no avail, he instead made it sound like he was set on fire and stabbed in the neck multiple times. A garbled mess of a scream transmitted over his helmet comms, and mixed with the voices of the people he was assigned to lead. His issued "Dumb" AI, Barca, threw out a few messages about incoming hostiles, his injuries, and what to try doing.

Time felt like it had slowed.

"Oh god, I need some help over here!" Yep, that was definitely Jim. A farm boy from Earth, and the youngest out of the whole squad at 20. Pretty innocent kid, he was the squad's designated medic. No one even knew how he managed to get approved as an ODST, but he acted like a complete newbie when first introduced into the squad. The fact that he was a boot was worrying for some people, but he quickly proved that he deserved the role when he jumped into the crossfire of a battle they fought previously and dragged out two marines from a different squad, managing to treat and evacuate them both.

He was sadly not suited towards violence, which surprised or irked the whole squad as he preferred to hide behind the other ODSTs and set up tiny triage centers. During the whole operation, Steve swore he only saw Jim fire his SMG once, and that was when he was cornered by one of those small grunt things. God bless his soul, as he was about to get torn apart by a bunch of Brutes. " **Chances of successful evacuation: 75%"**

"What the- SARGE!" undoubtedly came from Phillip. One of the more experienced members of the squad, he was the grease monkey of the group. He was born on Mars, and was a mechanic before enlisting. You could always rely on him to jury rig or muster up something useful for the situation. A noise maker to distract and prep a group of brutes for an ambush, and he could even modify most of the equipment and gear given to him to an extent.

Wasn't a great shot though, could barely hit the narrow side of a barn with all of the heavy gear he had on him. Turning his back to look at Steve get shot down turned out to be a bad idea, as it left him open to the Elite that rounded the corner with an energy sword. " **Chances of successful evacuation: 50%"**

"Damn it, get away from me!" The normally down to earth and calm voice of Bob came out as panicked mess. The heavy weapons specialist of the group, he waved around his M41 SPNKr like it was nothing. It was like it was an extension of his hand or something, and most of the things he shot at were with good reason, like an office building to collapse some rubble on top of a Covenant envoy. He carried as much rockets as he could in his pack and kept it loaded 24/7, but he'd always run out during an operation and Steve would have to request more and more rockets from Requisitions up top. Req became so accustomed to these orders that every single comm talk went like, "Staff Sergeant Steve to Requisitions, requesting-" "Requesting M41 Spanker rockets, yeah yeah, anything else, Uniform squad?"

There was also the fact that Bob wrote the word "SPANKER" on the interchangable barrel of his launcher, which made for great lines such as, "Prepare for a spanking!" and "I just spanked that group of Elites!" Not much of a trigger discipline though, always had to be told to be careful when near a group of civilians. Being surrounded by grunts, he held up his rocket launcher with one hand and held a grenade in the other, going out with a bang was seemingly the only acceptable way to die to him. " **Chances of successful evacuation: 25%"**

All of this, because of a horrible decision made by Steve. His whole squad doomed to die in the middle of New Mombasa all because he decided to drag them into saving Kilo and Whiskey squad's asses instead of focusing on making it to evac. If they didn't die here, the glassing of the city surely would kill them instead.

" _Listen up boys, all we have to do is make it to evac. We've managed to trudge through that scuffle at the center and we're not that far from evac." Trudging through the rubble on the road, Steve sighed. The operation was a failure and a glassing was in order, their job here was done and it was time to evacuate._

" _I'm tired boss, when do you think we'll get some R &R?"_

" _Not right now, Bob, they're about to glass the place, if we don't make it out of here we're screwed. Also, can you hand me a spare grenade? I used mine up in that last skirmish."_

" _Sure thing boss._ _Found this on one of those Spec Ops Elites, looks pretty normal though._ _" Unlatching a grenade from his hip, Bob tossed a grenade over to Steve, who barely managed to catch it._

" _Thank you, Bob." Attaching the grenade to his lower back, Steve looked back towards the rest of the squad, counting all 24 members before looking at Barca's laid out directions on his HUD._

" _... What's a glassing?" Jim's question came out a lot more scared and wimpy than usual, probably because of the whole "We're screwed if we don't get out" part._

" _H- How do you not know what a glassing is? You're an ODST, for crying out loud! Bah, it's best you didn't know kid, come on, we're less than a mile away." The naivety of Jim never ceased to amaze the squad, most of them looking at each other with clearly worried looks, before resuming their tasks of observing their surroundings._

" _Sarge, I think I'm hearing some screaming coming from that office building over there."_

" _Office building? Wait, Kilo squad said they needed help over there a while ago, didn't Whiskey come over to help them?"_

" _I'm not sure Sarge, but from the sound of it, either Kilo didn't get the help they needed or both squads are getting shit on."_

" _Damn, alright Uniform squad, converge on that office building over there. Make it snappy, we gotta save those Kilos. Barca, watch our backs."_

" _ **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant. I will provide tactical information and suggestions, keeping the best course of action and objective in mind."**_

" _Thank you, Barca. Alright Uniform squad, let's move!"_

Apparently Whiskey squad did actually manage to make it over to help Kilo, but a large group of Elites trailed them and Kilo squad was wiped almost instantly. The screams came from Whiskey squad's last members being torn apart and shot up, and that's where Uniform Squad came in, us. We came in guns blazing, but it didn't take long before we started to take casualties.

Barca could only do so much, his tactical advice was followed for the most part and actually managed to keep the whole squad intact and alive for the first few minutes of engagement. Even for an AI designed to dish out tactical information, it's very hard to handle a whole Covenant Company bringing the hammer down on a measly 24 men, even if they're all ODSTs.

" _ **I would not recommend attempting to evacuate that wounded marine, Staff Sergeant. The best course of action would be to-"**_

" _Quiet Barca, there's no way I'm just going to let a fellow marine get disemboweled by these Covenant bastards!"_

" _ **... Affirmative, Staff Sergeant. The best course of action to save that marine would be to take cover behind that pillar, as the rest of the Covenant force is still caught off guard and focusing on the rest of Uniform squad. Warning, my scanners detect an Elite using active camouflag-"**_

Steve didn't know why he moved right at that moment. The reason he was selected to be the leader of Uniform squad was because of his marginally better than most tactical decisions, or at least that was what he was told. 5 years in the UNSC hardens your mind, but it can only go so far before you start making stupid decisions.

Of course, this didn't go for people like Spartans, but Steve knew he'd never be one, not by a long shot. It wasn't even the duration of the operation that tore into his head, it was the amount of things that had happened to their squad and the civilians unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. Something just cracks in your head when you stumble upon two parents that were blown up trying to shield their children from a grenade, especially when their attempts don't even work in the end.

" _Hang on, marin- AGH, GODDAMNIT!"_

A few spikes punched through Steve's BDU from behind, causing him to fall to the floor a third of the way to the injured marine. Pushing back the pain, he lifted up his M7S with his right hand and fired a few bursts at some Elites that were pushing forward towards the rest of his squad before it was yanked out of his hand by an invisible force, who proceeded to force its hand past Steve's outstretched hand and punch him in the visor, knocking him out cold.

"- is dead, and so are the vets!"

"Staff Sergeant's AI just told us to get outta here, let's book it towards evac!"

" **Staff Sergeant, please awaken."**

Hearing the voices of a few hiding members of his squad and Barca brought Steve out of his unconscious state. Observing his surroundings, Steve was surrounded by Elites, although they were not directly focused on him, and instead looking over the battlefield. His M7S was still next to him, although using it now would probably get him killed.

Arching his head to the right, Steve saw that the wounded marine he was trying to evacuate at the start of the battle was mutilated badly, although his death seemed not to be in vain as he managed to somehow stab an unsuspecting Elite to death with his combat knife before being cut apart with an energy sword.

" **Staff Sergeant, I am glad to see that you are awake. You are wounded and unable to move, would you like for me to send out a distress call to any other UNSC forces in the immediate vicinity in hopes of saving you?"**

"Negative. Listen, once I die, tell the rest of the evaccing UNSC guys to avoid this area, there are too many hostiles here for any of our guys still down here to handle."

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant. It has been a pleasure serving with you and Uniform Squad, and I apologize that I was unable to keep you alive."**

"No worries Barca, just keep the rest of the squad alive."

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergean** **t, I will now instruct the remaining members of Unifor-** **"**

"This one lives."

A harsh hand seized Steve by the neck, its vice grip causing him to gasp for air until it slightly lessened, probably due to Steve's very vocal attempts to get air. Attempting to reach for his SMG to shoot at whatever was manhandling him failed, as it was quickly kicked away.

Steve blinked a few times and found that he was face to face with an Elite, clad in brownish grey armor and a face mask with glowing eyepieces. Damn, he had been briefed before deployment to watch out for these kinds of Elites. The Covenant's own Spec Ops, complete with Active Camouflage tech. Of course, you can't really watch out for something that can become near invisible at a moment's notice unless you've got an AI on lookout or have really keen senses. The fact that Barca wasn't able to catch this thing until the last second must've meant that it was real good at its job.

English speaking Elites were uncommon but not unheard of, generally the ones taught are meant to act as translators or interrogators, this Elite probably fitting more of an 'I'll kill you after I force the last bit of useful information out of you." role.

Directing his eyes down to the two weapons attached to the Elite's thighs, Steve saw that it carrying a Spiker, seemingly modified to fit an Elite instead of a Brute, and an energy sword. Looking at the rest of the Elite's group, he pieced together the puzzle and realized that this Elite was the one who shot him in the back, knocked him out, and probably killed the marine that took out that other Elite.

"Yes… This one is very much alive."

Eyeing the Elite suspiciously, Steve was contemplating whether to try going for his boot knife and stabbing the Elite a few times before it started to speak again."

"The men under your command have fallen, and without much of a struggle on our side. Tell me, how does it feel?"

Before Steve could respond, Barca chimed in, **"Staff Sergeant, I would not advise retorting, unless you would prefer a quick death. This Elite seems to be in particular, very volatile,** **and would most likely snap your neck at any provocations.** **"**

Steve shook his head, "My men fought valiantly and with courage, there is no doubting that. Yours flee or panic when our Spartans, demons as your kind call them, enter the mix."

Upon hearing this, the Elite immediately threw Steve to the ground, knocking a bit of the wind out of him before turning around and walking back, shouting something to its followers, paired with a hand signal, who then aimed their weapons at Steve.

"There goes my chance at surviving." Steve thought, chiding himself before yanking the grenade he got from Bob out from behind his back and pulling the pin, attempting to throw it towards the firing squad. The Elites fired, and Steve closed his eyes, ready to go one circle deeper into hell.

* * *

" **-ergeant, please awaken."**

Regaining his senses after hearing Barca, Steve blinked a few more times before analyzing his surroundings. He was in a forest slouched up against a huge mossy tree, quite beautiful actually, with the tall trees and green scenery. Not the time to appreciate nature though, Steve was severely confused. First he was fighting in New Mombasa, got his whole squad killed, tried suicide bombing a group of Elites after a talk gone wrong, and then got transported to a nature reserve?

"Barca, where am I?" Checking his person, Steve saw that he had his M7S attached to his thigh and the rest of his equipment still with him, apart from the grenade that he used trying to bomb the Elites that were about to shoot him.

" **I'm afraid that I would not know, Staff Sergeant. I have tried accessing the UNSC network to no avail and searched for any** **signal nearby, UNSC or not, and have not found anything. I have also analyzed the landscape and surroundings in the time you were unconscious, and there** **seems to be some kind of energy nearby, one unknown to my database.** **"**

Attempting to get up, Steve sharply inhaled as the spikes still embedded in his lower back dug in. Reaching his hand behind his back, Steve grabbed a hold of each spike, and one by one tore each of them out. It was basic first aid to leave things stuck in you in case they hit an artery and were stopping the bleeding, but they were impeding his ability to move, and he needed to know where he was.

" **Do you require instructions on how to treat your injuries, Staff Sergeant?"**

"I'm fine, Barca. Warn me if this unknown energy gets too close for comfort, alright?"

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant."**

Taking his rucksack off of his back, he took out a standard issue field aid kit and applied some ointment to ward off any infections before wrapping himself in bandages, deciding to save the small biofoam canister and morphine for more serious injuries.

Standing up with a grunt, Steve tried his helmet comms, only to receive static.

"Alright Barca, where should I-"

"I'm just saying, there's more members of Juniper in the team than Ruby," Hearing the voice of another person, Steve rolled into a bush instinctively, unholstering his M7S before scanning in the direction of the person talking.

A ginger girl, black vest jacket, pink shirt, and a heart with a line through it cut into her white top. On her back… A grenade launcher!? This girl couldn't be younger than 18, why the hell would she need to carry around a grenade launcher?

As for the person next to her, at least a head taller than her and sporting almost butt length hair, this guy reminded Steve of old Chinese garb from the history books. Looking over the male, he had two guns strapped to his thighs and a black backpack, and also couldn't be younger than 18. What is it with kids in this area packing grenade launchers and bayonet pistols?

Steve wasn't even sure what the guy was packing. They look like they come from the 1911 family, old line of pretty reliable handguns back in the 21st century up until we managed to get cushy in space. Except these ones have god damn collapsible blades on the bottom.

Shaking his head, Steve decided to keep listening in on their conversation in hopes of getting out some info out of where he was.

Motioning with her hands, the girl obviously wanted to sway her companion into agreeing with her, "It just makes sense to go with THAT one."

The male scratched his head, "But Junior isn't a color."

Stopping, the girl groaned, seeming fed up and leaned backwards a bit, before holding her head in her hands, "Ugh, how can I be more CLEAR?"

Alright, this conversation was getting nowhere and giving nothing. Looking to the right of the green garbed male, Steve observed a blonde, who seemed a tiny bit taller than the green male. Plate armor, or at least the chest plate, spaulders, and rerebraces parts. Jeans, two belts with some pouches attached, and seemed unarmed, what a relief. Could never be too sure though.

"Barca, scan that blonde over yonder, the one with the chestplate and jeans."

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant."**

Focusing back on the ginger and the green clothed male, Steve listened in on their conversation again.

Holding her right hand out, the girl pointed at something, "One, two, three! That's more than one."

The male held his hand out as well, but didn't point at anything, "But we're helping Ruby with her objective, wouldn't that make her the leader?"

That's a bit of useful information, they had a leader named Ruby. Before the two could keep arguing, the Blonde interrupted, "Guys."

" **The blonde male is not armed, Staff Sergeant, apart from a few miscellaneous items in his pouches there is nothing of danger to you."**

Nodding, Steve proceeded to observe the trio again.

Crouched down behind a fallen tree, the blonde was waiting for something, perhaps their leader was out scouting, as she didn't seem to be with them at the moment. "We need to focus."

Focus on what?

The blonde turned back to look over the tree, "Also, Junior is way cooler."

"Exactly!" Putting her hands on her hips, the girl seemed satisfied that someone else agreed with her.

Defeated, the green male held his hands up for a second in an attempt to argue back, before giving up and sighing.

The only information Steve got from the whole conversation was that they were deciding on a name for their group, either Junior or Ranger. Steve was personally rooting for Ranger, although the grenade launcher girl would probably destroy any aspect of "Ranger" with her personality.

" **Warning, Seismic activity detected nearby, prepare for slight rumbling."**

Bracing himself, Steve moved closer to the blonde to see what was causing the noise.

The blonde looked at the shaking rocks and back over the tree, "It's here."

Before Steve could question anything further, he saw something red fly out of a tree, rose petals? A red cloak? No, a girl? A girl with a rifle? What the hell was she firing at, and how the hell is she up that high?

" **Warning, Seismic activity and energy linked to-"** Before Barca could finish his sentence, a large mass of boulders and rocks somehow connected together, forming a vaguely human like appearance burst out from the trees, chasing the red girl who was firing at it.

Must be the leader of the group, Ruby, was it? The trio quickly ran down to assist the girl while Steve was busy gawking at the sight.

What could a bunch of kids, albeit armed and one packing a grenade launcher, do against a huge as hell rock monster? Especially one that big? All Steve had on himself was his M7S and the rest of his kit, barring any explosives, but there had to be some kind of weakness on that thing. He'd just have to rely on Barca for the strategy and keeping all of them alive. Steve sure as hell knew that he didn't want to die by a sentient rock after all of the things he's been through.


	2. In with a Whisper

Sliding down the hill, Steve witnessed the girl in red fall onto a tree branch, shouting something about a bad landing, before somehow dashing off of the branch in a red blur as the rock monster swung at the tree, breaking it effortlessly.

"What the hell was that? Barca, tell me how fast that kid can go. I'm starting to think that they'd actually be able to handle themselves and I can start running."

" **I will try, Staff Sergeant, please try to keep your helmet focused on the female in red so I would be able to calculate her miles per hour quicker."**

"Can't you just- Alright, scratch that, just keep me and these kids alive. See if you can find a weakness on that rock monster, alright?"

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant, I will provide tactical suggestions while analyzing the hostile for any weaknesses."**

"Thanks Barca." Watching the trio split off into different directions after being commanded by the blonde, the leaping into the trees with incredible acrobatics and Nora yelling "Don't forget me!", before grabbing her grenade launcher off of her back and… using it to propel herself up into the tree? Ruby quickly sped past the two, leaving behind a trail of roses while asking for help.

Ruby had her gun transform into a scythe, slicing at the rock monster but not damaging it, and then transformed her scythe back into a rifle, firing a shot at the monster, her gun not having much of an effect on the monster but still sped away after it focused on her.

Seriously? Multi function weapons? Also, how could that girl even handle shooting that thing? It looked like it fired something at least of the .50 BMG caliber.

Nora fired a volley of grenades at the rock monster, each of them hitting their mark and leaving some kind of pink smoke behind. Was she shooting smoke bombs, or were those actually explosives and just didn't affect the monster at all? If it was the latter… hoo boy, Steve would probably have to convince these guys to run if Barca couldn't find a weakness on it.

Ren performed some more acrobatic tricks, leaping from tree to tree while firing his automatic pistols at the rock monster, the bullets also not having much of an effect, but getting the rock monster to focus on him.

The rock monster swung at the tree Ren was on, but he proved to be too fast for the lumbering giant, getting it to punch into tree and flipping onto its arm, running on it towards the giant's head. As the man ran up the giant's arm, he leapt into the air and spun with his bladed guns out. Was he going to perform a god damn beyblade maneuver?

Spinning fast enough for his gun blades to act as a sort of propeller, he flew into the giant, cutting across its head with no effect as it attempted to protect its face.

It's face, why would it only protect its face and carelessly smash around with its other body parts?

" **Staff Sergeant, I believe that the hostile's main weakness would be its face, specifically the amber colored gem in the middle of its white, almost bone-like face,** **seeing as it attempted to shield its face from the green male's attack.** **"**

That made sense, if a grenade launcher couldn't take chunks out of this thing, why not try destroying what very well could be the control center? "Anything else, Barca? I don't think my gun would be much help here."

" **Your M7S Submachine Gun fires 5x23mm caseless ammunition, while your allies fighting the hostile use a dust-like substance, perhaps the sheer impact of a projectile would eliminate it, or at least damage it?"**

Bullets made out of dust? This day was getting weirder and weirder by the second. Steve checked his VISR, pleased to see that he had 192 rounds for his M7S, at least four magazines worth of ammo. He had some extra ammo in his rucksack, but now wasn't the time to resupply.

Steve pushed his immense surprise away for the moment, he'd ask the group what kind of performance enhancing drugs they were on after they take care of the rock monster.

Ren landed on the ground in a crouched pose next to Jaune, who held his hands to his head, "We gotta get in closer!"

"Barca, watch my back. I'm heading in."

" **Affirmative, Staff Sergeant, follow my instructions and I assure you that you and the others will come out of this battle victorious and uninjured."**

"How about this!" Loading a magazine marked with a lightning bolt, Steve expected for her to strike down the monster with the might of Zeus judging by the marking, with all of the crazy stuff he's seen today.

Ruby sped forwards, fast enough to be pretty blurry in Steve's eyes, leaving rose petals in her path again. Was she hiding a bag of rose petals in her cloak or something? Getting in front of the monster, she pulled the trigger and fired a shot of pure electricity, managing to hit its arm before landing again.

Kind of a let down, but you have to be realistic, even in these kinds of scenarios.

Landing on the ground, Ruby gasped, the electricity she fired at the monster did not seem to injure it, only push it backwards a bit. The electricity dissipated shortly after, and paused for a slight second.

" **Staff Sergeant, brace for impact induced shock wave."**

Tensing his body and making sure both of his feet were planted on the ground the best he could, Steve dove behind a tree ¾ of the way to the group and latched onto it to the best of his ability.

Letting go of the tree, Steve could see the four go flying. Nora and Ren managed to land by holding onto each other's shoulders, Ruby tumbling before bringing out her scythe to dig into the ground, while Jaune was not so lucky as he rolled and hit his jewels straight on a rock. "You'll be fine without a weapon, you're the strategist." came out of Jaune's mouth in a sarcastic tone. Poor guy.

Steve grimaced, "Ouch..."

"That's it!" Nora started to run towards the rock monster, a lot more serious than what seemed to be her usual self. Tossing her grenade launcher, it transformed into a large hammer, of course.

Quickening her long strides, she leaped into the air and smashed the rock monster's swinging hand, breaking it apart and off from the body. A piece of the boulder was thrown at Nora by the giant using the momentum of spinning around, but the piece was intercepted by the girl in red with her scythe, cutting it apart.

" **Staff Sergeant, I believe that now would be the time to engage the enemy."**

Nodding, Steve strode out of his cover behind the three, opening fire with his M7S and shooting three round bursts aimed at the giant's face, the long range causing most of his shots to hit the area around the giant's face and causing it to move an arm to protect itself. His sudden entrance surprised Ren and Jaune, who took cover as Steve shot past them, also causing the shrapnel from the rock that was broken apart by the girl in red to fly over them.

Jaune dove to the ground as if he was trying to avoid a grenade, "Whoa whoa, who's the guy with the gun?"

"Jaune, we all have guns here." Ren paused for a second, looking over his Jaune, "Except for you."

" **Noted, logging blonde individual as "Jaune". Threat level designated 2 instead of 1, as I detect some sort of energy surrounding each of these individuals."**

Jaune looked flustered, "Well yeah, I'm the strategist! I can't even swing a sword straight! I- can't we just focus on this other guy?"

"Hey!" Jaune looked for any defining features on the figure, looked like a guy, but looks could be deceiving, he was dressed head to toe in armor, Atlas? No, unless this guy was some kind of special forces he didn't have the polished armor of an Atlesian soldier.

Jaune figured that he would have to learn the guy's name later, as Steve looked at the blonde that was calling him over, lessening his rate of fire to maintain accuracy, "I'm here to help, aim for that thing's face! That's it's weak point!"

The face? Oh of course, the Geist didn't care for the rest of its body at all, and only tried to protect itself when its face was aimed at, as demonstrated by Ren earlier!

"Relay the info to the front, I'll provide suppressing fire!" Firing some more bursts at the giant, Steve moved to the front alongside Jaune and Ren.

Nora stared at the new addition to their party for a second, not exactly colorful, semed pretty tactical, yep, definitely some kinda military! "Who's that, Jaune?"

"Aim for it's fa- Oh what the hell!?" Steve watched as a monstrous arm grew out of a rune that appeared in the missing arm's place.

Ruby recoiled slightly at the swear, "That's a Geist! Ghosty thingies that can control other things!"

" **Noted, logging "Geist" as a new kind of enemy. It appears that the rocks are merely a vessel for the actual hostile. I predict that if you damage the base enough, it will eject and attempt to find something else to control."**

Nodding, Steve watched as the Geist stuck its monstrous arm into a tree trunk, which also happened to be the tree Jaune was leaning on to catch his breath. Pulling the tree upwards, the Geist ripped the tree out from the ground to use as a new arm.

"His arm is a tree, HIS ARM IS A TREE!" Jaune tucked tail and tried to run away while screaming.

"Big mistake!" Loading her scythe rifle with a magazine marked with a flame symbol, Ruby fired her gun at the Geist, setting its newly acquired tree arm on fire and staggering it slightly.

Big mistake indeed, as the Geist didn't seem to care much about its arm being on fire. Due to this, a loud "Big mistake!" was elicited from Jaune.

" **Staff Sergeant, I would recommend firing at the hostile now, Jaune cannot possibly run fast enough to elude it."**

Nodding, Steve fired a quick spray of his M7S at the giant in hopes of distracting it, but it seemed dead set on Jaune.

The giant swung its fire arm at a running and panicking Jaune, who fell to the floor after turning around to look at the Geist, and it took advantage of this and swung down at him.

Firing a few more bursts with his M7S at the giant in an attempt to distract it, Steve mentally swore, a kid was about to die under his watch! He wouldn't be able to make it in time, but before Steve could chide himself more, he saw the Geist fall backwards, having took a serious cut to the face from one of the man in green's gun blades.

" **Now would be the time to attack, Staff Sergeant."**

"Right." Running towards the toppled Geist, Steve fired some more shots at it before having to dive to the side to avoid its swinging flame arm.

"That didn't work, Barca!" Reloading his M7S, Steve backed away from the giant that was in the process of getting up.

" **Request the aid of the group behind you, their general speed and weapons should be able to distract it enough, though what I've seen from the female in pink points towards her having the strength to rival or possibly exceed a Spartan's, although unlikely."**

"Christ, I can't be on Earth anymore, unless the UNSC recently decided to dole out some experimental augments to the general populace."

" **You would be correct, Staff Sergeant. I have scanned the geography of the land around you and nothing in my database matches anything that we have seen here, apart from the humans and general plant life."**

Steve sweat dropped, he wasn't even on Earth anymore! Did that explosion send him flying into some backwater planet with things to rival his greatest nightmares and people agile and strong enough to leap among trees and chop apart stone?

Pushing these thoughts away yet again, Steve made it to the group, who just finished talking out their plan.

"You kids gonna help out or what? I can't exactly take this thing down with a peashooter!"

"Don't worry, we've got it all planned out, we're going to hit it harder!" Jaune exclaimed to the soldier, who slouched in slight disappointment and disbelief.

"Well..." Looking back at the Geist, he realized it was upright again. "Alright, anything to get rid of that thing!"

Jaune grinned, before turning back to the rest of his group, "Ren, left. Ruby, right." The two sped off in their designated directions, their speed still surprising Steve who turned back to the Geist and started to fire again to try to suppress it.

"Nora… ready to try out the new upgrade?"

" **Noted, logging individual as "Nora". Nora seems to demonstrate immense strength and speed, as noted before, although not as fast as her red companion, who seems to be able to go at speeds exceeding that of a Spartan's. These factors have earned her a threat level of 5 to you."**

"Sheesh..." Steve felt inadequate, these people could perform and do things even a Spartan wouldn't be able to match. At least, he'd never seen Master Chief do some wacky tree jumping tricks or a beyblade maneuver. Also, new upgrade?

" **Watch out, Staff Sergeant!"**

Nora nodded before taking off, leaving Jaune and a diving Steve to themselves.

"Right, then I will- Aah!" Steve dove into Jaune, moving him out of the way of a flaming tree arm being slammed down near them.

" **Do not falter, Staff Sergeant, keep moving!"**

Yanking Jaune up, Steve pushed him forwards, "Start running, kid! We'll take care o- OOF!"

The Geist slammed its remaining rock arm into Steve's back, making him feel like he was hit by the Chief himself, except many times harder. His rucksack absorbed some of the impact to an extent, but he could still feel something crack.

" **Staff Sergeant, prepare for another collisio-"**

Before Steve could process what just broke in his body, he collided with a tree, the force of the hit yanking the M7S out of his hands and throwing it into a bush. The impact didn't knock him out, but Steve could feel something else crack, probably a few ribs. His chestplate and bodysuit reduced some of the impact, thank god for Titanium-A armor and padding, but he could still feel the shock setting in slowly.

Jaune was shocked. First a mysterious guy dressed in armor that would make an Atlesian soldier double take pops out of a bush and says that he's "here to help" by nearly shooting him and Ren, and then he goes and gets his back done in?! What kind of insane person would run into battle without an aura?

Granted, Jaune also didn't have his aura unlocked until he was thrown into initiation at Beacon, but that was justified. The guy carried himself like a seasoned soldier, which made you expect for him to have an aura until the part where he got smashed in the back, Jaune cringed a bit as he swore he could hear bones cracking at the impact, and then fly into a tree.

Was this his fault? Jaune was too busy figuring out something for himself that he nearly got crushed by the Geist and had to be saved by the soldier, and ended up getting him severely hurt!

No time to think more though, as Jaune had to focus on evading and running away from the Geist that was now focused on him. Jaune let out a manly scream and took off in a random direction.

Ruby witnessed the strange man get hit saving Jaune, slightly recoiling at the noise made when the Geist made contact, but expecting for his aura to take the brunt of it. Her eyes widened when she realized that the man didn't have an aura, and cringed at the cracking of bone once more when he collided with a nearby tree.

Could she have warned him? She was fairly close and saw it coming, although she was more focused on the Geist than him. Ruby put it to the side for a second, she'd have to go check on him once they got rid of this Geist.

Using her semblance, Ruby sped forward and slashed at the Geist's flaming tree arm to no avail, realizing this, she quickly backed off as the Geist started to focus on her.

Ren leapt out of the trees, Stormflower blazing, he took a quick glance at their mysterious ally, who was now unconscious by the side of a tree. He grimaced, most of the tasks he did with the group ended pretty ok, their aura and combined skill proving more than enough for what they typically encountered, it was saddening to see that someone that was trying to help was injured that badly.

Flying over the Geist, Ren evaded its swinging arm. Ruby tried to get in a slice or two but was promptly knocked away by the Geist's arm, the hit causing her to cry out.

Nora held Magnhild, crouching slightly as a pink electricity generated and charged from it. She then looked at Jaune, signaling that she still needed some time.

Jaune ran towards the Geist in an attempt to distract it by yelling, coupled with waving his hands around, and getting close to it, "Uh, hey! Over here!" Successfully grabbing the Geist's attention, it slammed it's flaming arm at Jaune, who dove, rolled and slid, managing to dodge its attack.

Ren took this opportunity to jump onto the Geist's arm, firing at it before leaping back off and flipping onto the ground. Ruby activated her semblance, speeding forward in her cloak while leaving behind a trail of roses and slashed at the Geist, it using its arm to block the hits and swinging with its flaming arm, which was evaded by Ruby using her semblance to move to the side of it.

Firing four shots with her Crescent Rose, Ruby flew up into the sky with her semblance to evade another strike from the Geist, and entered a T-pose. Firing Crescent Rose once more, she used the immense recoil to launch herself towards the Geist, slashing at it once before backing off.

Nora dug the dirt up from under her with the heel of her boot, Magnhild having generated enough power to start shaking. "Ready!"

Knocking away the Geist's arm with her scythe, Ruby pointed Crescent Rose at it and fired, using the recoil to throw herself back near Jaune and Nora. She turned to Jaune for the signal.

Jaune cupped his hands around his mouth to make sure his message was loud enough for both Ruby and Nora to hear, "Use everything you've got!"

On cue, Ruby used her semblance to move forward, enveloping Nora and taking her along towards the Geist, the two forming a pink and red double helix, sparking with pink electricity and leaving rose petals in its wake.

The Geist moved its flaming tree arm in front of its face to protect itself from the approaching threat, but Ruby chopped through the weakened trunk as the two got closer, giving Nora the chance to directly hit the Geist with her charged Magnhild. The Geist immediately broke apart into pieces, and the actual Geist popped out of the main rock, attempting to escape before Ruby aimed and fired at the escaping Geist, ending it with ease.

Running up to the rest of the group obviously out of breath, Jaune took a breather before assuming a heroic pose, "Another victory for team Junior!"

A few seconds passed and Jaune gave up on the pose, having thought about the name for a bit, "Alright, y'know, okay… Ren, I think you're onto something." and started to walk away in the direction of the village they had just killed this Geist to help out.

"Umm, Jaune?" Ruby twiddled with her hands.

Jaune stopped and turned to look back at the rest of the group, who seemed pretty worried. "Yeah Ruby?"

"Aren't we going to help that man? He tried to help us..." Pointing towards the slumped figure of Steve, now unconscious from the shock of being hit by a moving boulder into a tree at speeds that would make General Ironwood cringe.

Jaune immediately remembered and sheepishly chuckled, "Right, Almost forgot about him! Ren, Nora, do you think you'd be able to carry him to the village with us? His gear looks pretty heavy..."

"No problem at all, Jaune!" Nora's bubbly and energetic personality quickly returned, bolting towards the unconscious individual.

"Yep, we have it handled." Ren nodded to Jaune before taking after Nora, who had already made it to Steve and struggled a bit before lifting him up completely.

Jaune turned to Ruby, another sheepish grin on his face. "Ruby?"

Ruby turned to Jaune and became worried at his tone and the look on his face, "What's wrong, Jaune?"

"Would you happen to know where I dropped my backpack before the whole fight with the Geist? The map's in there, alongside some ammo and food..."

Ruby sighed, a smile appearing on her face, "Oh, you almost had me worried there! I think you dropped it near Ren's."

Jaune sighed with relief, before turning to Ren who had just carried over the heavier than expected ODST, "Ren, you know where I put my backpack, right?"

Ren's face contorted into a confused one, "No, did you lose yours?"

Ruby and Nora groaned, staring daggers at Jaune, who was recoiling in justified fear, "… I'm sorry?"


End file.
